Jump to content

Lew Rockwell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected fromLew Rockwell.com)
Lew Rockwell
Rockwell in 2007
Chairman of theMises Institute
Assumed office
October 1982
Personal details
Born
Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr.

(1944-07-01)July 1, 1944(age 80)
Boston,Massachusetts,U.S.
SpouseMardelle Rockwell
EducationTufts University(BA)
Websitewww.lewrockwell.com
Part ofa serieson
Anarcho-capitalism
Origins
Concepts
People
Works
Issues
Related topics
This article is part ofa serieson
Libertarianism
in the United States
Schools
Principles
History
Economics
Intellectuals
Commentators
Politicians
Issues
Culture
Organizations
Works
See also

Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr.(born July 1, 1944) is an American author, editor, and political consultant. Alibertarianand a self-professedanarcho-capitalist,[1]he founded and is the chairman of theMises Institute,a non-profit promoting theAustrian Schoolof economics.

After graduating from university, Rockwell had jobs at the conservativeArlington House Publishers,the radical-rightJohn Birch Society,and the traditionalistHillsdale College.[2][3]Reading the works ofMurray Rothbard,who became his mentor, led Rockwell to become an ardent believer in Austrian economics and what he calls "libertarian anarchism". Rockwell was chief of staff to CongressmanRon Paulfrom 1978 to 1982, and was a founding officer and former vice president at Ron Paul & Associates, which published political and investment-oriented newsletters bearing Paul's name.[4][5]Racist and homophobic content inthose newslettersbecame a controversy in Paul's later campaigns; Rockwell denied ghostwriting it but acknowledged a role in the promotion.[6][7]Rockwell partnered with Rothbard in 1982 to found the Mises Institute in Alabama, where as of 2024,Rockwell still serves as chairman.[8]

Rockwell's website, LewRockwell.com, was launched in 1999. The website features articles about political philosophy, economics, and contemporary politics. The website's motto is "anti-war, anti-state, pro-market". Rockwell, his website and the Mises Institute have promotedneo-Confederateviews.[9][3][10][11]

Life and career

[edit]

Rockwell was born inBoston,Massachusetts,in 1944. After college,[specify]Rockwell worked atArlington House publishers[when?]and became acquainted with the works ofLudwig von Mises.[12]

A former lifetime member of the radical-rightJohn Birch Society,Rockwell worked in its Member's Monthly Message Department before resigning amid disputes with the society's leaders.[when?][3]In the mid-1970s, Rockwell worked at the traditionalistHillsdale Collegein fundraising and public relations.[12][2]

Rockwell met the anarcho-capitalistMurray Rothbardin 1975 and credits Rothbard with convincing him to abandonminarchismand reject the state completely.[13][12]In 1985, Rockwell was named a contributing editor toConservative Digest.[14]Rockwell also served as Vice President of theCenter for Libertarian StudiesinBurlingame, California,[when?]which published theRothbard-Rockwell Report.[15]Rockwell was closely associated with Rothbard until Rothbard's death in 1995.

Work for Ron Paul (1978–)

[edit]
Further information:Ron Paul

Rockwell was Ron Paul's congressional chief of staff from 1978 to 1982[16][17]and was a consultant to Paul's 1988Libertarian Partycampaign for President of the United States.[18]He was vice-chair of theexploratory committeefor Paul's run for the 1992 Republican Party nomination for president.[19]

Ron Paul newsletters

[edit]
Further information:Ron Paul newsletters

Rockwell was a founding officer and former vice president at Ron Paul & Associates,[20]which was one of the publishers of a variety of political and investment-oriented newsletters bearing Paul's name.[4][5]

In January 2008, duringRon Paul's 2008 presidential campaign,James KirchickofThe New Republicuncovered a collection of Ron Paul newsletters that contained "decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays."[5][21]For instance, one issue approved of the slogan "Sodomy = Death" and said homosexuals suffering from HIV/AIDS "enjoy the pity and attention that comes with being sick".[5]

Most of the articles contained no bylines.[5]Numerous sources alleged that Rockwell had ghostwritten the controversial newsletters;[22]Rockwell is listed as "contributing editor" on physical copies of some newsletters[23][24]and listed as sole Editor of the May 1988 "Ron Paul investment Newsletter".[25]Reasonmagazine reported that "a half-dozen longtime libertarian activists – including some still close to Paul" had identified Rockwell as the "chief ghostwriter" of the newsletters,[20]as did former Ron Paul Chief of Staff (1981–1985) John W. Robbins.[26]

Rockwell admitted to Kirchick that he was "involved in the promotion" of the newsletters and wrote the subscription letters but denied ghostwriting the articles. He said there were "seven or eight freelancers involved at various stages" of the newsletter's history and indicated another individual who had "left in unfortunate circumstances" and "is now long gone", but whom he did not identify, was in charge of editing and publishing the newsletters.[6]Rockwell has described discussion of the newsletters scandal as "hysterical smears aimed at political enemies."[27]Ron Paul himself repudiated the newsletters' content and said he was not involved in the daily operations of the newsletters or saw much of their content until years later.[22]In 2011, Paul's spokesperson Jesse Benton said that Paul had "taken moral responsibility because they appeared under his name and slipped through under his watch".[28]

Mises Institute (1982–)

[edit]
Further information:Mises Institute

In 1982, Rockwell founded the Ludwig von Mises Institute inAuburn, Alabama,and is chairman of the board.[29]

The Mises Institute published Rockwell'sSpeaking of Liberty,an anthology of editorials which were originally published on his website, along with transcripts from some of his speaking engagements. The institute hosted conferences onsecession;[9]Rockwell wrote before a 1995 conference, "We'll explore what causes [secession] and how to promote it."[5]

Burton Blumert,Rockwell, economist and philosopherDavid Gordon,andMurray Rothbard.

Paleolibertarianism (1980s–2000s)

[edit]
Further information:Paleolibertarianism

Rothbard, Rockwell and others described their views aspaleolibertarianto describe theircultural conservatismfused with their otherwise anti-statist beliefs.[13][30]They forged a "paleo alliance" between paleolibertarians andpaleoconservativesin the form of theJohn Randolph Clubin 1989, which allied the Mises Institute and the paleoconservativeRockford Institute.[13][31]

In a 2007 interview, Rockwell revealed he no longer considered himself a "paleolibertarian" and was "happy with the term libertarian." He explained "the term paleolibertarian became confused because of its association with paleoconservative, so it came to mean some sort of socially conservative libertarian, which wasn't the point at all...."[32]

LewRockwell.com (1999–)

[edit]

Rockwell's website, LewRockwell.com, formed in 1999, features articles and blog entries by various columnists and writers.[13]Its motto is "anti-war, anti-state, pro-market".[33]There also is a weekly podcast calledThe Lew Rockwell Show.[34]As of March 2017,it was in the top 10,000 websites in the United States.[35]LewRockwell.com publishes articles questioning United States participation inWorld War II,opposing "economic fascism" and supporting Austrian economics andsecessionism.[36][third-party source needed]The website is primarily home toright-libertarianauthors, althoughleft-winganti-war writers have been featured.[37][third-party source needed]The academic Tanni Haas wrote in his 2011 book on political bloggers that of the 20 figures he interviewed, "none have more radical views" than Rockwell, whose avowed goal was to "do everything he can to undermine the state".[38]

Brian DohertyofReasonwrote that the site's "Mises Institute-associated writers" tend to emphasize the domestic and international fallout from government action.[39]ConservativewriterJonah GoldbergofNational Reviewwrote that the site regularly hosts invective against icons of American mainstream conservatism, includingNational Review,The Weekly Standard,neoconservatives,andWilliam F. Buckley Jr.[40]A writer inThe American Conservativedescribed the site as paleolibertarian and "an indispensable source" of news on Ron Paul.[41]The site publishedInfoWarsarticles by the conspiracy theoristPaul Joseph Watsonfrom 2011 to 2016.[42]The site has been criticized for presenting articles which advocateHIV/AIDS denialism,the view that HIV does not cause AIDS,[43]and theview that vaccines cause autism.[44]

Other activities and views

[edit]
Lew Rockwell speaking at an event hosted by theMises Institute.

Rockwell'spaleolibertarianideology, like Rothbard's in his later years, combines aright-libertariantheory of anarcho-capitalism based onnatural rightswith thecultural conservativevalues and concerns ofpaleoconservatism,and he identifies strongly with the modern Rothbardian tradition of Austrian economics. In politics, he advocatesfederalistorAnti-Federalistpolicies as means to achieve increasing degrees of freedom from central government andsecessionfor the same politicaldecentralistreasons. Rockwell has calledenvironmentalism"an ideology as pitiless and Messianic asMarxism."[45][non-primary source needed]

Rockwell isCatholic.[46][self-published source?]

Books

[edit]

Author

[edit]
  • Speaking of Liberty(2003; onlinee-book)ISBN0-945466-38-2
  • The Left, The Right, and The State(2008; onlinee-book)ISBN978-1-933550-20-6
  • Against the State: An Anarcho-Capitalist Manifesto(2014)ISBN0990463109
  • Fascism vs. Capitalism(2013)ISBN1494399806
  • Against The Left: A Rothbardian Libertarianism(2019)ISBN978-0-9904631-5-3

Editor

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^"About".LewRockwell.com.Archivedfrom the original on 2015-04-19.Retrieved2015-04-20.
  2. ^abDoherty, Brian (2009).Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement.United States: PublicAffairs.ISBN9780786731886.
  3. ^abcDallek, Matthew (2023).Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right.United States: Basic Books.
  4. ^abThe newsletters had various names:Dr. Ron Paul's Freedom Report(OCLC38365640,15124395),The Ron Paul Survival Report(OCLC27301727), theRon Paul Investment Letter(OCLC27301651), and theRon Paul Political Report(OCLC31695178).
  5. ^abcdefKirchick, James(January 8, 2008)."Angry White Man: The Bigoted Past of Ron Paul".The New Republic.Archivedfrom the original on December 29, 2011.RetrievedFebruary 17,2012.
  6. ^abKirchick, James (10 January 2008)."Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?".New Republic.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-05-05.Retrieved2013-04-30.
  7. ^Markon, Jerry; Crites, Alice (January 27, 2012)."Ron Paul signed off on racist 1990s newsletters, associates say".Washington Post.ISSN0190-8286.Archivedfrom the original on May 2, 2023.
  8. ^"Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr".mises.org.Mises Institute. 20 June 2014.Archivedfrom the original on 20 November 2014.Retrieved23 March2024.
  9. ^abSebesta, Edward H.; Hague, Euan; Beirich, Heidi, eds. (2009).Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction.United States: University of Texas Press. pp. 33–34.
  10. ^Weiner, Rachel (July 10, 2013)."The libertarian war over the Civil War".The Washington Post.
  11. ^"The Neo-Confederates".Intelligence Report.Southern Poverty Law Center.Summer 2000.Archivedfrom the original on February 22, 2016.RetrievedAugust 29,2018.
  12. ^abcDoherty, Brian."Libertarianism and the Old Right"Archived2014-10-22 at theWayback Machine,Mises.org.1999. Orig. published bySpintechMag.org.May 12, 1999.
  13. ^abcdHawley, George (2016).Right-wing critics of American conservatism.Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. pp. 164–171.ISBN978-0-7006-2193-4.OCLC925410917.
  14. ^Berlet, Chip.The Write Stuff: U. S. Serial Print Culture from Conservatives out to Neonazis,Library Trends– Volume 56, Number 3, Winter 2008, pp. 570–600.
  15. ^Weisberg, J. (1991). "Hunter Gatherers".New Republic.Vol. 205, n. 10. pp. 14–16.
  16. ^Berlau, John.Now playing right field – Rep. Ron Paul – InterviewArchivedMay 27, 2005, at theWayback MachineInsight on the News.February 10, 1997.
  17. ^Hayes, Christopher,The Nation,Ron Paul's RootsArchived2010-03-06 at theWayback Machine,December 6, 2007, retrieved January 14, 2008
  18. ^"Campaign staffs announced",LPNEWSArchived2021-04-28 at theWayback Machine,May/June 1987, 10
  19. ^Burton Blumert,"Ron Paul for President Exploratory Committee" fundraising letter, October 1, 1991.
  20. ^ab"Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?".Reason.com. January 16, 2008.Archivedfrom the original on 2009-10-26.Retrieved2013-04-30.
  21. ^"TNR Exclusive: A Collection of Ron Paul's Most Incendiary Newsletters".The New Republic.December 23, 2011.Archivedfrom the original on 2015-11-05.Retrieved2012-01-13.
  22. ^abJim Rutenberg and Serge F. Kovaleski,Paul Disowns Extremists’ Views but Doesn’t Disavow the SupportArchived2020-10-08 at theWayback Machine,The New York Times,December 25, 2011.
  23. ^Hicks, Josh (December 27, 2011)."Ron Paul and the racist newsletters (Fact Checker biography)".The Washington Post.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-05-03.Retrieved2013-04-30.
  24. ^"Masthead of a 1987 Ron Paul Investment Letter"(PDF).Archived from the original on January 21, 2013.Retrieved2013-01-21.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  25. ^"May 1988" Ron Paul investment Newsletter ""(PDF).Archived from the original on January 21, 2013.Retrieved2013-01-21.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  26. ^Thomas, Will (January 18, 2008)."Likely Author of Shocking Ron Paul Letters Exposed".Huffingtonpost.com.Archivedfrom the original on 2013-09-20.Retrieved2013-04-30.
  27. ^Rockwell, Llewellyn (January 8, 2008)."The New 'Republic'".LewRockwell.com.Archivedfrom the original on August 12, 2023.RetrievedAugust 12,2023.
  28. ^Jackie Kucinich,Paul's story changes on racial commentsArchived2020-08-25 at theWayback Machine,USA TODAY, December 21, 2011.
  29. ^About the Mises Institute pageArchived2012-02-02 at theWayback MachineatLudwig von Mises InstituteArchived2009-03-19 at theWayback Machinewebsite.
  30. ^Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. "The Case for Paleo-libertarianism" inLibertymagazine, January 1990, 34–38.
  31. ^Olsen, Niklas; Slobodian, Quinn (April 2022)."Locating Ludwig von Mises: Introduction".Journal of the History of Ideas.83(2): 257–267.doi:10.1353/jhi.2022.0012.ISSN1086-3222.PMID35603613.S2CID248987154.Archivedfrom the original on 2022-05-31.Retrieved2023-10-09.
  32. ^Kenny Johnsson,Do You Consider Yourself a Libertarian?Archived2019-08-04 at theWayback Machine,interview with Lew Rockwell, May 25, 2007.
  33. ^About LewRockwell.comArchived2022-05-15 at theWayback Machine;ColumnistsArchived2022-03-14 at theWayback Machinelisting;The LRC BlogArchived2014-03-13 at theWayback Machineat LewRockwell.com website.
  34. ^Lew Rockwell ShowArchived2022-05-15 at theWayback Machine.
  35. ^Alexa analyctics for LewRockwell.comArchived2022-08-18 at theWayback Machine,accessed May 5, 2013.
  36. ^For example: Rogers, Mike."Dying For the Emperor? No Way."Archived2022-03-14 at theWayback MachineLewRockwell.com.October 12, 2005; Gonella, Jason."The Decline and Fall of the United States Empire."Archived2022-03-24 at theWayback MachineLewRockwell.com.December 9, 2004; DiLorenzo, Thomas J. "Economic Fascism"LewRockwell.com.November 23, 2004.
  37. ^"LewRockwell.com".LewRockwell.Archivedfrom the original on 2015-06-18.Retrieved2021-04-09.
  38. ^Haas, Tanni (2011-11-08).Making it in the Political Blogosphere.The Lutterworth Press. p. 92.doi:10.2307/j.ctt1cg4jqm.ISBN978-0-7188-4015-0.
  39. ^Doherty, Brian(February 16, 2009)."Libertarianism in an Age of Economic Crisis: Why being truculent, oppositional, and hard to pigeonhole are not signs of ideological death".Reason.Archivedfrom the original on August 30, 2017.RetrievedAugust 30,2017.
  40. ^Goldberg, Jonah(March 7, 2001)."Farewell, Lew Rockwell. The final word".National Review.Archived fromthe originalon September 28, 2013.The site also features regular screeds about how Abraham Lincoln was a murderous war criminal, how the American military is a hotbed of criminal imperialism and murderous warmongering, and why Southern secession not only was honorable and noble but how it still is a viable option.In this article, Goldberg was responding to criticisms of another article he had written about the website.
  41. ^Antle III, W. James (January 14, 2008)."The Paleocon Dilemma… The Ron Paul campaign illustrates the choices facing the antiwar Right".The American Conservative.Archivedfrom the original on August 30, 2017.RetrievedAugust 30,2017.[A] decade ago...Rockwell hoped to mobilize grassroots conservatives on behalf of anti-statism, during the Bush era he has detected a whiff of 'red-state fascism' among the Republican base. Other [LRC] writers prefer terms like 'neoconofascist'.
  42. ^Finlayson, Alan (February 2022)."YouTube and Political Ideologies: Technology, Populism and Rhetorical Form".Political Studies.70(1): 62–80.doi:10.1177/0032321720934630.ISSN0032-3217.S2CID225642501.
  43. ^Kalichman, Seth; Nattrass, Nicoli (2008).Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy.New York, London:Springer.pp. 49–53, 142, 182, 191.ISBN978-0-387-79475-4.OCLC390487079.
  44. ^Gorski, David (June 22, 2009)."Cranks, quacks, and peer-review."Archived2022-04-08 at theWayback MachineScience-based medicine. Author is Assistant Professor of Medicine (Surgery) at Wayne State University (holding an M.D. and Ph.D. in Cellular Biology from Case Western University)
  45. ^Rockwell, L. H., Jr. (1990). "An anti-environmentalist manifesto."From The Right,Quarterly II, 1(6), 1. (newsletter of Patrick J. Buchanan), p. 1; Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.Rockwell's Anti-Environmentalist ManifestoArchived2022-05-15 at theWayback Machine,May 1, 2000 version published byLewrockwell.com
  46. ^Matthews, Steve (January 7, 2018)."Anti-Protestant: Lew Rockwell's Ongoing Attack on the Reformation".Lux Lucet.Archivedfrom the original on October 9, 2023.RetrievedSeptember 24,2023.
[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related toLew Rockwell.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lew_Rockwell&oldid=1231307614#LewRockwell.com_(1999–)"